Pandora: Music Streaming Hits a Tipping Point

Subscription services have room to grow, particularly if they can deliver to consumers the right product at the right price. Music streamers have had to choose between paying nothing (for limited feature sets) and $10 per month (for the premium product) with almost nothing in the middle.

Reaching the middle of the market will require some flexibility on product and price.One approach has been Pandora Plus, a mid-tier, $4.99-per-month product with half the price of a premium on-demand service, unlimited skips and no advertisements. The kicker is a new feature not available to either the free, ad-supported product or the previous incarnation of the ad-free product, Pandora One.